Give Preschool Children a Musical Head Start!

Dear Friends,

Thank you for helping GITC (git-see) come such a long way this summer. It's amazing how far your show of love can go when you want to help little children through music! We are seeing so much improvement, hope and joy in the schools.

This summer thanks to you, we have taken early childhood musical training to Ontario, Canada- our first official international program! We have also been able to work with early childhood educators in Boston and San Diego, bringing our new collection of songs for the early childhood classroom into preschools, kinders and Head Start programs! We expect to distribute 600 ukuleles to classrooms between now and December. Everyone in our programs is now learning to play ukuleles with their young students- in addition to guitars- and the kids have been making the most amazing discoveries as a result.They love to strum and sing together and are finding they can not only make beautiful music and share it, but they can teach it to their siblings and parents- a surprising find, indeed.

This past week, teachers in San Diego wrote 2 beautiful new songs for kindergarteners in order to help them overcome their nervousness on the first day of school. Both teacher groups worked with the melody of Ben E. King's song "Stand By Me." One group with teachers Kelly Creeden and Sarah Carvahlo wrote words about feeling scared and not knowing who your friends are on the first day of school with the chorus, "I won't cry, I won't cry, no I won't shed a tear just as long as someone plays with me. Some someone, someone play with me, o-oh play with me, oh Someone won't you play with me." The teachers will substitute the name of each student for the word Someone when school starts.

The second group of teachers including Wendy Aardappel, Belen Jacot and Joanie Hartman wrote these beautful lyrics:

When the day has come for the
first day of school and your
family says goodbye to you
Oh don't be afraid – ohh don’t be afraid
You'll make friends and have lots of fun, too.

Chorus:

So Children, Children  you'll be okay  cause our class is a team. We'll learn together and become a family

We'll read books and sing songs and play together too.
We'll eat lunch and learn about our school
We'll be kind to our friends and listen to them too
Our teacher will be proud of us*

Chorus:

So Children, Children  you'll be okay  cause our class is a team. We'll learn together and become a family!

Thanks for being a part of the Guitars in the Classroom family. Let's keep making this vision of musical access for all children starting in preschool a reality everywhere. Together we can make a tremendous difference for the children when we train, inspire and equip their teachers to shape their lives every day through song.

With gratitude, wishing you happiness,

Jess

Links:

• GITC brings music making to Canada this summer

Here at GITC, we're excited to report that through your generous donations we are indeed Giving Preschool Children a Musical Head Start!  Every day, a child's mind is being engaged through active music participation in our schools, and in our small way, we're helping Head Start programs thrive.

We’re ecstatic to report that in December Kala Musical Brand Company donated over 900 ukuleles to our programs.  Thanks to their generous donation, ukuleles are now in classrooms throughout California and in Arizona: Oakland, CA; Camarillo, CA; Thousand Oaks, CA; Oceanside, CA; Encinitas, CA; San Diego, and Phoenix, AZ. 

We're not only affecting students, but their teachers as well!  Training the teachers is the key to making sure children receive the benefits of making music for years and years to come. Every week the teachers are learning more tools of how to share music in their classrooms.  Thanks to the special gift of a handful of U-Basses, some of our teacher trainers are also learning to play Kala U-Basses which enable them to harmonize with the teachers in their training programs. This encourages teachers and ultimately students to play the melody with strength and initiative.  In the last couple of months, we’ve expanded opportunities for teachers to purchase ukuleles directly from our generous, manufacturer sponsors. Schools that raise their own dollars to purchase a set of ukuleles can now do so at a fraction of the cost through KALA Brand Music Company, Lanikai Ukuleles, and Luna Guitars!

I’d like to personally thank you for your contributions and support of this campaign.  The success and sensational growth of this program is entirely due to your early commitment.  Because of your support to bring ukuleles to preschool children—and because you proved it could work—the door flew open and new possibilities arose. 

While we've come a long way on this goal, we still have more to go.  With more funding, we can ensure that the teacher training both continues and grows through the dedication of our trainer, and we can also provide more ukuleles to these classrooms.  With your help, we can extend our hand to help many more Head Start programs.

Please help us continue to expand this campaign for children in need in schools beyond the state of California.  With your continue support, we can expand our program to purchase ukuleles for children in Longmont, Colorado and Burlington, Vermont.

Thank you for your continued support of this project!

Wishing you health, harmony and happiness,

Jessica Baron